There have been some dazzling
moments in this year’s blockbuster season but it’s safe to say most offerings
have left audiences, not to mention the big studios’ pockets, feeling rather
empty. What better time for Neill Blomkamp to drop his second feature. His
excellent debut District 9 managed to
bag a tonne of cash on the relatively micro budget of 30 million dollars. It
also made an alien slum in Johannesburg seem entirely plausible. Blomkamp’s
kitty is a touch larger this time but it certainly hasn’t blunted the director’s
edge. His second feature Elysium is a
breathless spectacle; chock-full of the sort of ideas which make the sci-fi genre
great.
The year is 2154 and the wealthy
elite have flown the coop to the orbiting paradise of Elysium; a sterile,
Villa-laden space station where sickness and aging have been eradicated- as
long as you’re a citizen that is. Things aren’t so rosy back home. Earth looks
to be one sprawling Favela. Matt Damon plays Max, an earth dweller struggling
to leave behind his misspent youth and earn an honest buck. It’s proving tough.
Max’s past seems to keep getting him in hot water with the authorities- a now
automated droid police with a real knack for human bureaucracy- while the only
work on offer lies in the hideous local munitions factory. An accident in work
leaves Max four days to live with his only hope for care on the distant Elysium.
A cyber revolutionary named spider offers to get him there but Max will need to
mech-up and steal the neuro-information of an Elysium citizen, while a
frightening mercenary named Kruger lies in wait.
Fans of Blomkamp’s first film
might find this story arc a bit familiar- South African mercenaries in a
helicopter chasing a somewhat mutated human with some lucrative otherworldly attribute
through a shanty town- but it would be absurd to call this film unoriginal.
Refreshingly economical with its use of CGI, the array of weaponry and
machinery are a feast of design while the casting offers a host of delicious
scene stealing; Jodie Foster’s Machiavellian minister has some interesting
shades of Christine Legarde (Unintentionally surely?) while Shartlo Fookin Copley is immense as the Kitana
wielding Kruger.
Aside from all that showmanship Elysium, like all good Sci-Fi, thrives
on a simple idea. A touch of social commentary makes for good science fiction
and while the underlying theme here is painted with a giant clumsy roller,
there is something a bit subtler at work. Blomkamp might like to put his heroes
through the ringer but it’s not all for thrills. The director seems to have a belief
in human perseverance, especially from those of lesser means, and despite
Hollywood’s supposed liberalism, for a tent pole summer film to have that sort
of ethos these days still feels subversive.
Given the Dream Factory’s increasingly risk-free assembly line, the film’s
non-sequel/adaptation/remake-ness is also an anomaly. Steven Spielberg thinks
that assembly line will eventually produce an “implosion” in the film industry.
If the moneymen throw more cash at people like Blomkamp there might still be
some hope.
